Image Reflecting

 Let Your Light Shine!!

Our throughline this month is Image Reflecting.  What follows is a brief description of what we mean by "Image Reflecting" that has been adopted by our staff and school. It was originally written by the Prairie Centre for Christian Education based in Alberta.

While we don’t always ACT righteously, and Wwhile we don’t always DO things successfully, what we ARE is image bearers of God (Larry Day, Manhattan Teachers Convention, 1988). 

Being an image bearer isn’t something we DO. It is deeper than that.  Image bearer is what we ARE.  We reflect God’s image! We are all image bearers of Christ! Think about it like a mirror – the image of the ‘real person’ is reflected in the mirror. You don’t see the actual real person, but you see what they are like. All the characteristics we admire in God are also within us – we are His reflection.
  

And not only us!  All humans were created in that image. Sin can often fog the mirror and make the reflection more difficult to see.  Challenging our students in their learning activities to see themselves and each other as reflecting God’s image is only part of our task.  We need to also challenge them to see the image bearer in the hungry child, the hardened criminal, the school bully and the careless teacher!
  

People around us often form impressions of who God is by looking at God’s followers.  Students need to learn that while they are image bearers, they can distort the image by what they do.  The more Christ-like our actions are, the more clearly Christ’s light shines in a dark world.

Today, we welcomed guest speaker Pastor deWinter to our chapel. He shared with us that image reflecting is more than what you do. Image reflecting means that we also recognize the purpose or mission that God has given us and act on this at every given opportunity.We need to live lives that are transformed as we let our light shine and we reflect God's image and see the image of God in others. 

Be the salt and light. Let your light shine!